Austin

SXSW is not an easy thing to survive. So much of it happens outside of the conference center and into the wee hours of the morning. How do you handle an event that pretty much goes on 20 hours each day? People who attended the Mashable House party at Buffalo Billiards lived to tell the tale–and here’s what they say.

SXSW Interactive can be as much a professional development event as a Party for Geeks. Of course, if you ask your boss to send you, he’s going to focus on the “party” part. But there are good arguments to make about why the trip to Austin can be a good thing for the company. Here’s how you can present them to your boss. Here’s how to lead the conversation.

Apple plans to more than double employment in Austin, Texas, with the investment of $304 million for a new campus that will house its Americas Operations Center. The plan calls for Apple to add more than 3,600 employees over the next decade, including customer support, sales and accounting staff. The company has 3,500 employees in its operations there now. In return, the state has offered the world’s most valuable company $21 million in incentives, along with local incentive agreements still… continue…

Mere rain doesn’t really slow the pace of South by Southwest, though it compresses it a bit. On Saturday, the rain let up for a while, then resumed, then let up again. When they could people got out onto the street in search of friends and beer. When they couldn’t find friends, they hunkered down somewhere and did the next best thing… texted. Wandering around downtown, here’s some of what I saw.

SXSW is many things, among them: crowded. But crowds are alway interesting. So, all through the weekend I’ll be updating this slide show. Keep checking back. And if you’re here and see something you like, send it over and I’ll post it. You can see the show here.

Dice News and our colleagues from Marketing are at SXSW Interactive. I’ll be blogging through the weekend and, since Marketing is getting me into several parties, I thought I’d share this handy infographic to tell where the crew would be.

SXSW Interactive starts Friday, bringing with it panels, parties, demos, parties, speakers, and parties. If you’re going, you have to plan, rest, and possibly drink a lot of Red Bull. Our friend David Spark put together a “No-BS” Guide to Surviving SXSW. They’re straight up tips for making it through life in Austin’s fast lane. Check it out here.

SXSW 2012 may be the year of ambient awareness apps. At least, there’s an awful lot being written about them. These are the apps that tell you about friends or “relevant strangers” who are wandering around near you. Among the companies showing of their apps will be Sonar, Highlight, Ban.jo and Trover. With so many people and so many events flowing around downtown, SXSW is a great place for these things to duke it out. (David Spark aptly calls SXSW “fluid.”)… continue…

Austin’s tech community is skeptical about a Forbes report that ranks it 32nd out of its 51 best cities for technology jobs. Mark Schill of the Praxis Strategy Group , which conducted the analysis for Forbes, told The Daily Texan: … layoffs at major manufacturing companies and a shift of labor to foreign markets contributed to the loss of 17,000 jobs in semiconductor, computer, and circuit board manufacturing over the past decade. Praxis Strategy Group used labor statistics gathered from… continue…

Austin Execs Recruit in Silicon Valley: Thirty local high-tech CEOs are heading to the Bay Area to recruit technology talent. The reason: The city’s pool of technical workers is running low. So they’re meeting with Silicon Valley engineers and other tech professionals in an attempt to lure them to Austin. Statesman.com Bazaarvoice Going IPO: Rapidly growing online customer community and review company Bazaarvoice registered for an $86.25 million IPO. The company currently employs 494 people and had $64.4 million in revenue during fiscal 2011. Forbes… continue…